Birth trauma often coincides with feelings of losing control over your body, your baby and ultimately, your birth experience.
Here are some common circumstances that can lead to feelings ranging from dissatisfaction all the way to feeling completely traumatised:
*Lengthy labour or short and very painful labour
*Induction
*Poor pain relief
*Medical interventions
* Emergency deliveries: e.g. emergency caesarean section birth, forcepts or vaccum delivery
*Manual removal of placenta
*Lack of information/ explanation/ consent
*Lack of privacy and dignity
*Stillbirth
*Birth of an injured baby – a disability resulting from birth trauma
*Baby’s stay in a neonatal unit
*Previous history of trauma * this could include your own birth experience*
*Feeling loss of control
*Feelings of shame/ disappointment that your body didn’t birth naturally or as you expected.
*Impersonal treatment or problems with medical staff’s attitudes
*Not being listened to
*Fear for baby’s well-being
*Poor postnatal care
What’s important to remember is that your feelings surrounding your experience are valid no matter how your birth occurred. This point is worth repeating! If you are feeling stuck, hurt, sad, angry or unable to process the experience, you deserve to do this work for yourself and your baby.